Another Trump administration deportation blitz hasn’t materialized in Chicago

When U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino left town last fall, Chicago’s reprieve came with a warning: The tear gas, chaos and fear associated with Operation Midway Blitz could return to the city’s streets fourfold in March.

Now March is here. And President Donald Trump has fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, instead.

Bovino’s out too. The White House put him on the sidelines in January after the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal officers in Minneapolis. Even Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary who once fiercely defended Homeland Security, has moved on.

All told, there’s little on the horizon to suggest Operation Midway Blitz 2.0 is about to materialize.

Much has changed since a source told the Chicago Sun-Times in November that 1,000 agents could return this month. The enforcement surge in Minnesota that followed the earlier Chicago campaign turned out to be a breaking point, leaving the Trump administration struggling to justify the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Calls to reform immigration enforcement have led to a partial government shutdown. Senate Democrats last week blocked Homeland Security funding for a third time, refusing to approve a spending bill without stricter use-of-force policies and a ban on officers wearing masks.

Steve Art, an attorney who challenged the feds’ tactics in court last fall, said the Minneapolis campaign gave the American people "a look at what we saw in Chicago throughout Operation Midway Blitz."

And, he said, "the American people didn’t like it."

The Chicago operation featured roving bands of masked agents, thousands of arrests, the seemingly indiscriminate use of tear gas and pepper balls, and two shootings, one of which claimed the life of Silverio Villegas González. 

"Bovino being gone and Noem being gone within six months of the start of Operation Midway Blitz really shows you how politically untenable it is to engage in that kind of operation in the United States," Art said. "And that should give everybody a lot of hope."

A Homeland Security spokesperson said officials in the department "do not discuss future or potential operations."

"Every day, DHS enforces the laws of the nation across the country including in Chicago," the spokesperson added.

Immigration enforcement remains a key pillar of Trump’s second term. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a mountain of funding and continues to hire and increase its capacity to remove immigrants from the country, according to a former Homeland Security official.

The feds are still fighting a court order that would govern the treatment of people held in an immigration processing facility in Broadview. Last fall, a judge heard that people were crammed 100 at a time into a cell there, with nowhere to sleep but a dirty floor near an open toilet.

Art said it’s good to be prepared for another surge in enforcement. But he also warned of future issues "relating to the election and to polling places."

Meanwhile, in the nation’s capital, U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez said Democrats "can’t keep sabotaging ourselves." She took Noem to task in a fiery meeting last month and told her, "your days may be numbered."

That was eight days before Trump showed Noem the door.

Now, with Homeland Security on its heels, Ramirez told the Sun-Times "this is our moment."

"Our strategy has to be, delay as far as you possibly can," the Illinois Democrat said. "Delay till November, if you can. Maybe January. And then let us get into the majority."

Changing tactics

The public outcry that stifled the feds’ immigration operation in Minneapolis led to new ICE directives that were relayed during recent agency-wide leadership meetings, the former Homeland Security official told the Sun-Times.

Leaders were told to prioritize "targeted enforcement," instead of the "street sweeps" and large-scale campaigns like Midway Blitz, the official said. That would mean a return to ICE’s traditional, but still aggressive, enforcement tactics.

It would also mean setting aside the hallmark, but controversial, tactics of Midway Blitz: Roaming Chicago’s neighborhoods and stopping anyone whose legal status appeared to be in doubt. Those tactics came roaring back Dec. 16, when Bovino led Border Patrol agents on a brief trip to the Chicago area.

ICE still has vast financial resources and access to vital information from other government agencies that helps agents identify and target people.

“Does the Chicago field office just really try to do a lot of enforcement without supplemental folks from other areas and other federal agencies?” the former official said. “Do they look at different ways of arresting people, like worksites?”

“It doesn’t appear that they’re going to stop doing immigration enforcement because they’re ramping up all the other parts of the system.”

There’s no obvious sign of another Chicago surge within Homeland Security spending, though. Last summer, the agency stocked up on office supplies and ammunition to be used here, while also investing in relocation services for agents, according to federal data.

Similar purchases were made in Minnesota and North Carolina in the months leading up to increased immigration enforcement in those states.

The department has continued buying supplies and security equipment in Minnesota over the past month, as large swaths of agents remain in the area.

But the department hasn’t made any major purchases for use here since the withdrawal of Bovino and many of his agents in November.

The last contract the department signed related to the Broadview holding facility was a $349,000 purchase for box lunch services on Dec. 8.

Those services are set to expire in early April.

Plans for polling places?

The spending impasse in Washington leaves immigration enforcement largely unaffected. That’s because the agencies at the crux of the argument are considered essential under a shutdown.

That includes ICE, which received $75 billion in Trump’s major tax and spending bill, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That also allows the agency to ride out the funding lapse while other departments under Homeland Security will be forced to furlough workers and cut operations.

Chicago Democrats like Ramirez hope the impasse — and Noem’s firing — will delay any plans to target Chicago in another sweeping immigration operation. Trump said he would nominate U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, as his next Homeland Security secretary.

But Ramirez said Mullin is unlikely to be confirmed by the Senate until some time in April.

“Frankly, it wouldn't work well with them if they end up continuing these big operations without a leader at the helm,” Ramirez said.

Lawmakers in the nation’s capital have also raised concerns about the Trump administration using ICE or Border Patrol agents to disrupt voting in November. U.S. Sen. Chris Coons asked Noem last week, before she was fired, whether she would rule out deploying agents to polling places.

“There are no plans to have ICE officers at our polling locations,” Noem told the Delaware Democrat.

Coons cited a law forbidding troops at the polls and continued to press Noem on whether she would “rule it out.” Noem retorted, “do you plan on illegal aliens voting in our elections, senator?”

Others share Coons’ concern. Art said plans are in the works to litigate “whether there’s ever a reason to have federal forces, like we saw during Operation Midway Blitz, anywhere near a polling place.”

“We think the obvious answer to that, under the law, is no,” Art said. “But it’s our intention to litigate that issue far in advance.”

Art helped win last fall’s order from U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis restricting the feds’ use of force during Midway Blitz — an order formally vacated last week by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Art's team also secured an under-oath deposition from Bovino, during which Ellis said he lied about his justification for the use of tear gas in Little Village.

‘They say they’re coming back’

The ICE holding facility in Broadview became a focal point of Midway Blitz. Not only did many of the feds’ detainees find themselves held there at some point, but it became the site of near-daily protests.

Designed as a short-term holding facility, U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman remarked last November that it had “really become a prison.” He did so while presiding over a lawsuit that alleges the feds were “warehousing people at Broadview for days on end.”

Gettleman handed down a temporary restraining order that month aimed at improving conditions inside the facility. He required a clean mat and bedding for everyone held there overnight, and that cells be cleaned twice daily.

The order is still in effect. A two-day hearing over whether Gettleman should enter a more permanent order is set to begin April 21.

But in mid-December, a month after Bovino and his agents first left town, the Justice Department seemed to have an opportunity to bring the case to an end. DOJ lawyer Jana Brady told the judge that “Broadview is back to being just a processing center.”

She said the case was “moot.” In other words, there was no reason to keep arguing about it. The controversy was over.

But Gettleman pressed her on the question on many Chicagoans’ minds. He said he would consider whether the case had become irrelevant if Brady would only “stipulate” that a second surge in immigration enforcement was not in the works.

“If the government learns that we’re not going to have a surge again, and is able to give assurances about that, then I would be open to some sort of resolution,” Gettleman told her.

“What you’re asking for is law-enforcement-sensitive information,” Brady replied. She said it could lead to the “thwarting” of a mission or “safety issues for all involved.”

So the case is still ongoing, three months later.

Gettleman told Brady he was simply taking her client at its word.

“They say they’re coming back here in force,” he told her.

Contributing: Tom Schuba